Work Injury Statistics in the US

United States employer reported workplace injuries and illnesses in 2015Collected and analyzed by the United States Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics

Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Category

Private Industry Report Summary

There were 2.9 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, or 3.0 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2015, with 48,000 fewer nonfatal injury and illness cases compared to 2014.

Injuries and illnesses by type of case: The days away from work rate was 0.9 per 100 workers and job transfer or restriction cases were 0.7 per 100 workers.

Injuries and illnesses by industry size: The highest rate occurred at mid-size establishments (50 to 249 workers). The lowest rate were at small establishments which employed fewer than 11 workers.

Private Industry Sectors Statistics: The wholesale trade sector was the only sector with an increase, rising from 2.9 cases in 2014 to 3.1 cases per 100 full-time workers.

Total Injuries Statistics: Injuries were a total of 2.8 million or 95.2 percent. Nearly 2.1 million injuries, or 75.0 percent, occurred in service industries, which employed 82.5 percent of the total workforce. The remaining 0.7 million injuries, or 25.0 percent, occurred in manufacturing and goods industries, which accounted for 17.5 percent of the workforce.

Workplace illness rate and industry type rates statistics

Workplace illnesses represented 4.8 percent of the total, and occurred at a rate of 14.6 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Service industries accounted for 64.7 percent of private industry illness cases with a rate of 12.0 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Goods and manufacturing industries accounted for 35.4 percent of all occupational illness cases, for an incidence rate of 24.6 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. This is down from the previous year.

Public Sector Report Summary Statistics

An estimated 752,600 injury and illness cases were reported in 2015 among the approximately 18.4 million state and local government workers. These are workers from public schools, public hospitals, police and fire departments. These workers reported injuries at a rate of 5.1 cases per 100 full-time workers.

Unchanged from 2014, at 5.0, it was still a higher injury rate than private industry workers with a rate of 3.0 cases per 100 full-time workers.

In 2015, local government workers accounted for four in five injuries and illnesses. This resulted in an injury and illness rate of 5.6 cases per 100 full-time workers. That was higher than the 3.7 cases per 100 full-time workers in state government.

The incident rate declined significantly from 2014, at 4.1 cases, while the rate among local government workers was statistically unchanged from 2014.

Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary

In 2015, a total of 4,836 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States, a slight increase from 2014 which reported 4,821 fatal injuries.

Key statistics for recorded fatal occupational injuries

The total annual of 4,836 fatal workplace injuries in 2015 was the highest since 2008. On that year, 5,214 fatal injuries were recorded.

The overall rate of fatal work injuries was 3.38 per 100,000 full-time workers. This was lower than the 2014 rate of 3.43 per 100,000 full-time workers.

Hispanic or Latino workers had 903 fatal injuries in 2015. This was the most since 2007.

Workers 65 years of age and older had 650 fatal injuries. This was the 2nd largest number for this group since the US census began in 1992 but decreased compared to 2014 which was 684 fatalities.

Fatalities on the road were up 9 percent compared to 2014. This accounted for over 25 percent of the 2015 fatal occupational injuries.

Suicides at the workplace decreased 18 percent in 2015 in comparison with 2014. But homicides increased by 2 percent compared to 2014.

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers were recorded as having 745 fatal injuries.This was the most of any occupation.

The 937 fatal work injuries in the private construction industry in 2015 represented the highest total work injuries since 975 cases were reported in 2008.

Fatal injuries in the private oil and gas extraction industries were 38 percent lower in 2015 compared to 2014.

In 2015, seventeen percent of the deceased were contractors working for another business or a government entity at the time of the incident.